By Segun Olatunji
All long-suffering citizens of Ogun State now have every cause to roll out the drums, wind their waists and gyrate to incoherent sounds coming from the drums of a nondescript group, Yewa Lawa. Why? From its disingenuous ultimate political gaslighting playbook for rescuing Ogun State, Yewa Lawa has recommended the crowning of the scion of a billionaire at the expense of real infrastructure. This “political oracle” has peered into its crystal ball and magisterially delivered its verdict on the 2027 governorship election in Ogun State through its self-appointed chief priest, the “deeply strategic” Adetunji Akeem Adedeji, who has dropped the “blistering bombshell” against the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Solomon Olamilekan Adeola (Yayi).
For Adedeji and his masters, Senator Yayi’s audacious flooding of the once deprived soil of Ogun West with massive Federal infrastructure is far too mainstream – a highly offensive, borderline criminal act. However, Adedeji in his masterclass of pure cynicism, has pointed us toward his group’s “real promised land” paved with Ladi Adebutu’s “golden manifesto” for the 2027 governorship election. But with the assurance that their perpetual candidate, Ladi Adebutu, will permanently hold sway in the Ogun governorship race like a colossus.
There’s no doubt that Yewa Lawa, Adedeji and their masters are still dazed by the audacity of actual performance Senator Yayi has continued to exhibit with his life-changing projects and mega-empowerment programmes since his election in 2023 to represent Ogun West Senatorial District at the National Assembly in Abuja.
From their own “brilliant lens”, Yayi’s “unpardonable crimes” are legions. For them, it’s unthinkable that a Nigerian politician can actually deliver myriads of physical and traceable developments to communities that had for decades wallowed in neglect, want and abject poverty. They cannot contemplate the “sheer horror” of the unprecedented developments the Senator has wrought across the five local government areas of Ogun West within three years.
Yewa Lawa is confused that Senator Yayi had the nerve to facilitate the construction of the 103km Ilara–Ilashe road, which now links 26 bewildered communities. Yayi’s laying of asphalt on the Alagbon Bible College Road in Owode and the Lusada–Alapoti Road is still like a mirage to Yewa Lawa, who believes a smooth commute is needless when residents of Ogun West in those areas are happy and contented waddling through knee-deep mud. They view Yayi’s building of roads, funding of schools and empowerment of youths and women as unnecessary. They wonder who’s interested in a governor focusing on providing tangible, boring democracy dividends like economic empowerment and life-impacting infrastructure.
Yewa Lawa and his sponsors feel insulted that rather than letting people travel hours for medical emergencies, the ranking Senator built two fully equipped Intensive Care Units (ICUs) at the State Hospital in Ota. Yayi’s audacity of bringing critical care closer to the grassroots remains unbelievable to Yewa Lawa.
Moreover, for Yewa Lawa and his perpetual governorship candidate, Senator Yayi’s construction of the Koko Ultramodern Market in Ipokia and others in Atan and Ijako Ota constitute “economic sabotage” that must not be tolerated. “Patriotic” Ogun West indigenes like Yewa Lawa know that local traders prefer selling their wares while being “beaten” by the various weather elements rather than under secure structured, modern markets.
Senator Yayi’s lighting up of communities that had become accustomed and comfortable with total darkness, according to Yewa Lawa, is a clear violation of local customs and traditions. His reactivation of the Ilaro to Ibese and Ibese to Joga 33KV overhead powerlines is crass abomination!
Yewa Lawa and Adedeji have therefore offered Ogun people the “refreshing,” completely chaotic alternative of Ladi Adebutu, notwithstanding the good roads, electricity transformers and medical centres they now enjoy under Senator Yayi. Yewa Lawa believes the people of Ogun State should ignore a Senator who commands Federal influence and leverages elective public office to provide infrastructure for his constituents. Rather, they should embrace a perpetual candidate whose primary qualification is inheriting a massive war chest and mastery of betting platforms, as well as one whose political history boasts serial election crime thrillers. He prefers Ogun people to ignore a seat at the high table and hide in a corner to perpetually complain about governmental neglect. For Yewa Lawa and Adedeji, the governor Ogun State deserves in 2027 is one with the uncanny creative approach to the ballot box. And his preferred governorship candidate already has a record in that regard. He possesses a magic wand and a “glorious democratic” pedigree exhibited through his innovative pre-loaded Verve ATM cards. So, Adedeji does not believe a candidate should bother about convincing voters with policies and programmes when all he needs to do is to simply share such ATM cards to them on election day. No wonder, in 2023, Yewa Lawa’s candidate masterminded an “endowment scheme” that the Federal Government aggressively prosecuted as a N2billion vote-buying bazaar. That is what they have now re-christened “direct citizen empowerment.”
When the Federal Government filed a seven-count criminal charge of bribery and money laundering against Yewa Lawa’s candidate following the electoral fraud, his lawyers dsingeniously came up with the legal manoeuvre of their client being “charged in absentia while on sudden medical leave abroad.”
For Yewa Lawa’s candidate, one election controversy can never be enough. He will always keep the drama alive during every election cycle and perhaps break his own record. Ogun people have yet to forget his arrest and detention by security agencies following the violent disturbances during local government elections in Remo North.
If Yewa Lawa and Adedeji have forgotten their candidates legendary 2019 run, which didn’t even make it to the ballot as he was perpetually locked in an endless, paralysing leadership tussle with the other members of his own party, Ogun State electorate’s memory isn’t that short.
Sounding like a broken record, Yewa Lawa and Adedeji’s refrain remains “Yayi is a stranger, an outsider!” Of course, Yayi may have spent years representing his constituents in Lagos, that he didn’t grow up on Adedeji’s approved “indigenes” soil does not render his governorship candidacy in Ogun State invalid. Beside crass mischief, malicious shenanigans and desperate politics, and in spite of Yewa Lawa’s pretensions, Yayi’s Yewa ancestry is not in doubt. While Adedeji and his candidate believe “ancestral probe” garnished with geographical jargons is of more importance than actual performance, Yayi has continued to rewrite the infrastructural blueprint of Ogun West, and so does not require the exact “indigene” credentials approved by Yewa Lawa, Adedeji and their perpetual governorship candidate. Clearly, for Yewa Lawa, the geographical location of Yayi’s umbilical cord is far more useful to needy citizens than motorable road networks, provision of healthcare facilities, modern, well-equipped school facilities, stable electricity supply, or a government not bedevilled and distracted with criminal court proceedings. Yewa Lawa believes that Ogun State does not need strategic governance but entertainment – the thrill of unending election petitions.
For Adetunji Akeem Adedeji, the people of Ogun State must collectively thank him and his Yewa Lawa group for snatching them from the brink of actual progress. Reveling in his own world while completely lost in his passion project, he believes that without his “timely diatribe,” against Senator Adeola Yayi, the electorate in the state might inadvertently choose a governor based on tangible track records and effective representation. Of course, Yewa Lawa is happy that he has reminded the Ogun electorate that governance is best reserved for family dynasties constantly embroiled in court-ordered trials and fight for political entitlement. For him and his perpetual governorship candidate, 2027 is looking incredibly bright, assuming, of course, the people enjoy wallowing in total blackouts.
. Olatunji, a Journalist, Political/Crisis Communication Strategist writes from Ilaro, Ogun State
